August 2019 Grocery Challenge

CRANKY40

Good evening, recording a NSD here today. It was a work day for me so early lunch and early dinner. Today's food

Breakfast - cereal for HT, banana on toast for me
Lunch - cheese and bacon toastie for HT, fruit and yogurt for me
Dinner - pulled pork wrap and fries for HT, home made chicken fried rice for me (included beansprouts, spring onions, peas from the garden, sliced up pods from same peas and wholegrain rice)
Supper - cheese and ham roll for HT, satsumas for me

Luciecat63

Could i please join in with a wild guess of £200.

I haven't kept very good records of my spending but I am aware I waste too much by buying something, not fancying it and then ending up throwing it.

thriftwizard

£55 spent at the market yesterday before driving down West to spring one of my brothers from hospital & stay the night with him. For which he repaid me with a meal out last night & breakfast on the beach this morning! I didn't manage to get some of the things on my list yesterday, but I think we'll be OK for most of the week with what we've got in.

That said, I'm going to spend a bit extra on groceries & not count it into my total; our local food bank are desperate, with the summer hols in full flow, as so many kids who would normally at least get a school lunch have nothing now. So I shall whiz down to L!dls at some point this week & buy some bits to donate; August was always the hardest month for us budget-wise after July's run of birthdays, when all the kids lived at home, and allotment produce kept us afloat many a time, but I know many of the parents who depend on the food bank don't have time to manage an allotment or the now-£50 annual rent, which has to be paid upfront.

Fairie

Spent 5.90 at Mr Ts, (milk, pak choi, beansprouts, oyster sauce and a bag of prawn crackers), dp and I are having stir fry for tea (with mushrooms and noodles from the cupboard and spring rolls from the freezer) . Big win over grabbing our usual takeaway!

Lunch was leftovers and for breakfast we had a fruit salad with rice and seeds and a bit of honey.

I made another batch of the breakfast bites I posted the other day. Added an extra egg and different nuts and seeds plus some raisins. Very filling and we had a couple for an afternoon snack.

Currently at £153.05/£550

Fortune_Favour

Good Evening,

This is my first post here on the thread.
Our 4 weekly food budget is £400, running from the 25th-25th of each month, so we're already a week or so in.
Due to it being hubbys birthday we actually only have £300 for this 4 week period as we decided to go 'super budget' and use the £100 to get him a nice present (a gift voucher for a glass blowing experience)
So after a few small shops we are down to £180 for the rest of the month :eek:
Every summer holiday we run what we call 'the benefit' with our older boys where they are given a set amount of money (usually £15) and they have to plan, shop and cook all of their own meals for a week. They are currently 14 and 12 but we have done this for 3 years so they're well practiced and have come up with some wonderfully inventive meals over the years.
As we are on a very tight budget I have decided we will do 'the benefit' together for the rest of the month.
So, we currently have £60 a week for 2 Adults, a 14, 12, 7 and 3 year old (one veggie, one dairy free)
Can it be done? I certainly hope so and we'll be giving it a good go!:j

zafiro1984

First spend of the month, 20.60p on baking items, plus 6.06 on bits. I suddenly have 90 eggs to use up so I thought I'd make the batter for 3 different cakes and freeze them separately. So I'll end up with:-
8 ginger and treacle spiced traybakes
8 classic gingerbread traybakes
12 lemon drizzle traybake, all Mary Berry recipes.
It works out at 75p a cake. They'll stand me in good stead later in the year as we can get through a cake a day in the cold weather.

Suffolk_lass

Fortune_Favour wrote: »

Good Evening,

This is my first post here on the thread.
Our 4 weekly food budget is £400, running from the 25th-25th of each month, so we're already a week or so in.
Due to it being hubbys birthday we actually only have £300 for this 4 week period as we decided to go 'super budget' and use the £100 to get him a nice present (a gift voucher for a glass blowing experience)
So after a few small shops we are down to £180 for the rest of the month :eek:
Every summer holiday we run what we call 'the benefit' with our older boys where they are given a set amount of money (usually £15) and they have to plan, shop and cook all of their own meals for a week. They are currently 14 and 12 but we have done this for 3 years so they're well practiced and have come up with some wonderfully inventive meals over the years.
As we are on a very tight budget I have decided we will do 'the benefit' together for the rest of the month.
So, we currently have £60 a week for 2 Adults, a 14, 12, 7 and 3 year old (one veggie, one dairy free)
Can it be done? I certainly hope so and we'll be giving it a good go!:j

Welcome to the thread - it sounds as though you already have some great techniques for cost cutting. If you are looking for inspiration do browse the recipes index - lots of economical meal options (and treats!) in there at the beginning of each month. And please do share any recipes of your own - elsiepac maintains it and there are clear instructions how to highlight them in the first post of each month.

Good luck!

Suffolk_lass

I have had my first August spend, £18.76 including 6 meat portions and some cheeky sm own brand ice lollies. Trying to keep spends down as hols approach

[Deleted User]

Did last medium shop last Thursday and nothing since other than ordered some Xmas and B'day pressies from Am.. and EB.. they will be put away until the time. Need to do a little shop in a few days which will no doubt turn into a meddium shop. Only me.

Ellie79

Hi everyone, can I join? I really am not entirely sure how close I am going to get to this but with people being on holidays and different things going on I am hoping maybe £300 for the month - I get paid currently in the middle of the month but don't tend to do a big shop as our money is split over different pots so I am going to start from now (as it is not yet pay day) and see how I go, if that is ok?

Going to go read back through the posts and hopefully get my head around it all.

Thanks!